Dear forest networkers, I would like to briefly bring to your attention some
aspects of Tasmanian government-industrial forestry and to ask your opinions
on whether such forestry is commonplace elsewhere. Also I would like to see
the many of the practices listed below changed as soon. Use of trees surely
doesn't
have to be so devastating as it is here.
Thank you for your time.
Destruction of Tasmanian Forests. June 1994.
The Tasmanian Forestry Commission and North Broken Hill Peko (a
mining company on mainland Australia but called North Forest Products or
APPM in Tasmania) do highly destructive and wasteful logging in old-growth
forests without doing wildlife surveys to detect endangered or previously
unrecorded species. Clearfells are bigger further away from the
conservationists, eg. thousands of hectares are cleared and burned annually,
many left to erode. The situation is perpetuated by state government laws
which were proposed by the timber industries. The Forestry Commission has
coupes marked for logging at high altitudes (up to 800 metres) in the Great
Western Tiers mountains. The Tassie mainstream media give the conservation
issue bad publicity because the Forestry Commission and the wood chip
industries spend millions on advertising and because many of the
conservationists are not in prestigious jobs. The mainstream media
(especially the newspapers and television) manipulates the Tasmanian public
by often issuing incorrect information and by strongly biased coverage, in
favour of logging.
Logging coupes 311 and 320 (80 hectares) in the Great Western Tiers
near Meander, are on the interim list of the National Estate according to
the Australian Heritage Commission because of their rare and diverse fauna
and flora, but 320 is being mostly clearfelled before it can join the final
list. The Forestry Commission didn't do a fauna survey and the endangered
Tassie Wedge-tailed eagle (only 70 breeding pairs left) and White Goshawk
live in the area. Many areas in Tasmania have never been explored for
unknown species and this is one such place. There are also about one
hundred eagles in Tassie that have no where to nest, due to logging. Nearby
in the Gog Range the Forestry Commission have coupes planned in the habitat
of the giant fresh water crayfish. The Commission is lobbying strongly to
keep the crayfish from being listed as an endangered species. Similar
lobbying by logging groups paused the progress of coupe 320 to the AHC final
list. In Reedy Marsh forests a fauna survey has not been done even though
local field naturalists offered to help. The field nats. found a dry
habitat, burrowing crayfish which has yet to be identified. Also the
endangered Tassie eagles live there. Forestry should not quell rare wildlife
assessment.
About a century ago old-style bushmen lived in some remote areas of
Tassie which have since recovered well. Now clearfell machinery enters and
the forests don't stand a chance. They have finished "selective logging"
coupe 311 (60 hectares) on Warners Sugarloaf and have begun the clearfell in
320, a magnificent old-growth (tall timber) forest. Undergrowth and small
trees were levelled in the selective logging (311) by a "salad grabber" and
log skidders, now orange slopes are being eroded. In coupe 320 the skidder
wheel ruts are 2 foot deep in the mud and called "lost production areas" by
Forestry. Just as many articulated gravel trucks have been emptied for the
numerous tracks of the 320 coupe as log trucks have come out, consequently
there are many "lost production areas". Due to pressure from observations by
local conservationists the logging has been paused temporarily over winter.
(These observations were made during trespassing and despite threats of
violence from logging enthusiasts.) The logging industry should be
conscientious nad not hae to have the public spending time observing them.
After felling in coupe 320 the Forestry will be hot-burning and then
bait with 1080 poison (sodium (mono)fluoroacetate) (to give eucalypt
seedlings a head start). In 1987 the RSPCA recommended that 1080 poison be
immediately banned. The 1080 directly kills wallabies, bettongs and possums
but they can easily take up to a day to die). Plus it enters the food chain
as eagles have been seen taking carrion back to their nests for offspring.
Native marsupials are protected in Tasmania but apparently not protected
from the Forestry Commission. The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife department
was amalgamated with the Lands Department. It appears that officers in the
department have been covertly instructed not to engage in surveying or
preservation activities in the Jackeys Marsh and Huntsman areas (311 & 320).
Tree hollow animals are chipped in the mills daily. I have tried to obtain
export permits for live wildlife from the 320 coupe but the Dept of
Environment (Parks & Wildlife) said the animals would be traumatised and
that a bad stigma is associated with animal export. Perhaps people
interstate should know the nature of the deaths of the logging coupe and
neighbouring animals.
The Forestry Commission has a multi-million dollar advertising and
p.r. campaign including glossy pamphlets to children, TV and radio adverts,
and a so called "working forest" for families to visit. Funding comes from
Australian tax payers and old-growth forests. Their campaign includes
extensive mis- information on ecological aspects of their activities. They
use phrases such as "wildlife corridors", "sustainable logging", "lungs of
the earth" for their matrix plantations and "regeneration to native forest"
for aerial seeded plantations. The media potray conservationists as
"hippies" and keep referring to Jackeys Marsh (which is a small alternative
lifestyle community) even when the protests are not there. The timber
industries don't mention the smoke from burning, the decades of minimal
vegetation nor their failed plantations near Meander. One recent radio
advert concluded with "Logging, a plus for the environment". But they have
no phrases for death of animals in clearfell coupes due to loss of habitat,
burning and poisoning. The Tasmanian Logging Association distributes to
children pamphlets sponsored by North Forest Products. In reports the
Forestry quote the acreage of parks and compare it with individual coupes,
rather than with the total area cleared so far. We want people to
experience real old-growth forests and then see first hand what the Forestry
is doing in the forest of coupe 320 and what they have done in huge
clearfell coupes elsewhere. Their fauna surveys should be made compulsory
and monitored by indepenents.
Only 11% of the logs from coupe 320 are to be saw logs, the rest,
89% will be chipped. This is a huge waste of a forest. Bark, branches and
stumps ("slashings") are burnt by Forestry rather than being mulched or
composted for the land's benefit. There is plenty of suitable vacant land,
already cleared, where they can put plantations. The Commission does not do
any "Urban Forestry" although there is enormous opportunity and it won't use
the more economical European holistic (sustainable) method of forestry (eg.
Pro-silva) which it has been in touch with for several years. One
alternative source of paper is hemp farming, initialised by a southern
Tasmanian farmer, also flax can be used in Tasmania. There are plenty of log
trucks on the main roads in Tassie but I never see tree nursery vehicles.
We have had blockades on the dirt roads near the coupes, people
were arrested under requests from North Forest Products. Some were charged
with trespass (on North Broken Hill Peko land), some with obstruction (fair
enough) and one with creating a nuisance (he was moving aside but the
policeman said he was a ring-leader). We had a walk and rally in the city of
Launceston and the police were very helpful. If we go into the coupe to
stand in the way of chain saws we each face a possible one years jail plus a
$20,000 fine. So we haven't done that yet, but everyone needs to. The state
government is disregarding an international biodiversity convention signed
by the federal government. Also it is disregarding many aspects of the
"Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment" it signed in 1992. The
federal government (Prime Minister Mr Paul Keating) is allowing this. The
police department has admitted that personal data from car number plates is
passed on to the logging industry but says it shouldn't happen. (Ordinary
citizens have to get permission from the car's owner).
A large dam site was clearfelled next to coupes 311 and 320 about
four years ago but due to bad planning the dam wasn't built and the area
hasn't been replanted. The area included an active eagles' nest and the
eagles moved nearby. After I queried North Broken Hill Peko Limited (St
Kilda, Melbourne) about their responsibilities for locating the new nest the
Forestry Commission faxed North Forest Products a map containing a circle
for an eagles' nest near coupe 311. The Deloraine Field Naturalists and I
searched unsuccessfully for the nest. The Commission later said that the
circle "was not a positive siting". The Forestry and a logger checked a nest
he spotted 9 years ago (now disintegrated) by a logger near coupe 320, on
the face of the Great Western Tiers. This is a very poor approach to
conservation of a rare species. The eagles use several nests on a rotation
basis over the years so they should be located and protected before logging.
However logging will continue in spring.
The Forestry Commission have applied to become a corporation and so
the Freedom of Information Act will no longer apply to them, plus they are
applying to run log trucks 24hours/day. Chippers are applying to have the
export chip quota increased and the state government plans to increase
export of milled saw logs from old-growth forests. This will increase the
rate of deforestation. Already the timber industry establishes annual saw
mill log quotas (300,000 cubic metres in Tassie) then uses the legislation
as an excuse to chip old-growth forests. The quotas have recently been
increased again.
The so called "Forest Protection Society" which promotes extensive
logging is apparently receiving financial support from the wood chip
industry. The society has organised some of the local long established
farmers (who don't like partaking in conservation nor the "newcomers") to
"Fight back against conservationists" and start anti-conservation groups
from "Mole Creek to Hagley". They publicly plan to promote poison 1080 on
farms and coupes, logging, cattle on the highland plateau and quarrying. The
local Meander annex of the Forest Protection Society (actually forestry
protection), called the Meander Resource Management Group" is trying to gain
political promotion of their activities. The Meander group's chairman is an
ex-log truck driver. One member told me that wives, kids and houses will be
attacked if logging is further disrupted. The p.r., mis-information and
intimidation tactics of the Forest Protection Society are very similar to
those of the "Wise Use" movement in the United States of America. Locally
conservation is often ignored; for example bored youths from Deloraine (near
Meander) go "point scoring" with cars at night, more points for hitting
rarer animals.
There is considerable polarisation of the Meander community. Some
residents are afraid of speaking up incase their spring water which comes
via established farmers land gets disconnected (mine is). In 1983 a bushfire
was lit and it almost burnt out an annual "Forest Festival" in Jackeys
Marsh. In 1985 bridge in Jackeys Marsh was blown up by a Meander farmer in
an attempt to stop the Marshians from voting for local council. In 1992 the
underground telephone cable to Jackeys Marsh was cut with an axe, a
conservationists car was rammed and a Marshian was multiply assaulted while
trespassing to clear 1080. During the latest controversy a Marshian's bush
block was set alight and he had to extinguish it by hand to save his home.
Also the coupe 320's night watchman was apparently harassed by a group of
youths and the Marshians were blamed.
Most of the local conservationists have formed a "Great Western Tiers
National Park" campaign to preserve the area and have published a detailed plan
which was basically supported by the Parks and Wildlife department. Other
locals just want an end to the destruction.
The loggers will work for a few months in coupe 320 and then the
land will be comparatively useless until they harvest their plantation (80
years on). But there are eco-tourist operators in Jackeys Marsh and
Meander. Plus the forest could contain useful medicinal herbs or
undiscovered invertebrates, no one will know unless logging is stopped now.
Some of the plantations nearby are growing well but many are not. Other
dubious aspects of the Forestry's methods, eg. long term economics, wild
burns, land slides and creek destruction have been noted. Longer range
environmental problems are: decreased rainfall, increased frosts, ground
level gale force winds, contaminated rivers and underground water.
The forests and their animals are for people in the future as well
as now, not just for paper. Tasmania needs world wide community awareness of
the Forestry Commission's actions and waste of Australians' taxes. Local
conservationists will resist the wasteful destruction and there is scope for
other people to help. E.g. by revealing the wastage to the general public
and by asking the federal ministers for environment and for resources
(Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600) to stop the destruction.
My family has a small farm in the Huntsman area of Meander in view
of the logging coupes 311 and 320 and next to the Great Western Tiers
mountains; also I work in the city of Launceston. You can contact me, Dr
Christopher Dean, c/o Post Office Meander, TAS 7304, Australia , Email:
cdean1@cs.amc.edu.au
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